'THE SPIRIT OF THE RULES'

By George Vecsey

Published: August 1, 1983

would invoke the ''spirit of the rules'' in his now-famous pine-tar decision last Thursday. The president

of the American League has long held a proudly conservative view of his business.

Late one night and years ago, he told the story - no names or cities identified - of a 1-0 pitching duel that was labeled ''boring'' by one chap covering the game. Lee MacPhail didn't think the game was boring at all. (If memory serves, his team had won.) The next day he wrote a presumably polite and certainly anonymous letter to the chap's editor in praise of 1-0 pitching duels and questioning the ancient tradition of harnessing baseball writers to the plow for every pitch of the season.

Lo and behold, the editor gave the writer a one-week, no-questions-asked vacation smack in the middle of twilight-night doubleheader time, and the bloke returned from shore or lake refreshed and more open to the charm of 1-0 pitching duels.

MacPhail's gentle but dogged love of his game served him well in the past week when he had to deal with the actions of well-intentioned umpires. The following sentiment will embarrass Lee MacPhail no small amount but it needs to be said anyway: It is a pity we cannot clone him and place him in several prominent spots in baseball in the trying days to come.

MacPhail's decision to re-validate George Brett's home run with the pine-tar bat was proper, particularly since any administrator could easily have bowed to the awesome weight of the fait accompli and said: ''It's over, it's done, let's go on from here.''

The ''spirit of the rules'' basis for MacPhail's pine-tar decision will come in handy as he switches from president of the American League to head of the Player Relations Committee at the end of this season. This negotiating unit, under the direction of Ray Grebey, who was not a baseball man, hardened feelings and helped prolong the strike in 1981.

Baseball could use a MacPhail running the American League in years to come; it could use a MacPhail in the Player Relations Committee, and it could use a MacPhail in a few board rooms of the major league clubs this week.

Owners of the 26 clubs will meet in Boston to discuss the Marx Brothers lunacy that has Bowie Kuhn's term ending on Aug. 12 and no successor named. A few owners named Harpo, Zeppo, Gummo, Chico and Groucho have turned the leadership of baseball into ''A Night at the Opera.''

The last tally indicated that 18 clubs wanted Kuhn back and 8 didn't, but baseball insists that each league ratify the commissioner by a 75 percent approval. Baseball needs a few wise owners who can convince the Marx Brothers that it's a bad idea to scuttle a commissioner before having a glimmer of an idea how to replace him.

Does anybody really know what's going to happen on Aug. 12? Bowie Kuhn believes he has a chance to be reappointed. Will he turn his conference desks on end, jam chairs against the door knobs and form barricades against a squad of Pinkertons come to toss him and his thermal underwear into the street? Will the Marx Brothers come up with a commissioner by then?

Kuhn, who has his flaws, has been a better commissioner than some critics say. If he must go, Lee MacPhail would be an exceptional replacement, except that, at age 65, he says he doesn't want the job.

The recent All-Star victory and the pine-tar decision are two good ways to go out. By now, everybody knows the details: Brett hit a two-run homer off Goose Gossage in the ninth inning a week ago yesterday to apparently give Kansas City a 5-4 lead over the Yankees. But Billy Martin - give him this: one of the very best field managers of his time - correctly pointed out that Brett's bat contained pine tar 6 inches beyond the stipulated 18-inch limit. The umpires ruled Brett was out for using an illegal bat and that the game was over.

On Thursday, MacPhail upheld Kansas City's protest, saying: ''The rules provide instead that the bat be removed from the game.'' He absolved his umpires from too much criticism by blaming the ''unclear and unprecise'' wording of the rules.

The umpires could have saved MacPhail some trouble by telling Martin: ''Look, you may be right, but at this moment we're telling you you're wrong. We'll impound Brett's bat, we'll turn it over to the league in the morning, but for now, get your team out there and finish the game.''

That way, the umpires could have presented a finished game to MacPhail along with a Marv Throneberry bat with 24 inches of pine tar on it. Either way MacPhail ruled, he would have had a finished game with which to work.

The decision left a potentially touchy situation in case the suspended game becomes important to Kansas City or the Yankees. The final four outs would have to be replayed in Yankee Stadium late in the season.

George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, has already stirred up the emotions of the sweet souls who sing madrigals and sip herbal tea in the soft twilight of the Bronx:

''If the Yankees should lose the Eastern Division race on the ruling of American League president Lee MacPhail, I would not want to be poor Lee living in New York City. He better start house-hunting out in Missouri, close to Kansas City.''

It is rabble-rousing like this that makes more than a few fans giggle at the decision by Lee MacPhail. Indeed, for some people, the pine-tar ruling may be popular, and even epic, because it was made at the expense of them .

But chortling does an injustice to the wisdom of Lee MacPhail. Suppose a Yankee had hit the homer with too much pine tar on his bat? The ''spirit of the rules'' never meant that a man should lose a home run because of some harmless but unesthetic pine tar. Baseball needs more people with a feel for the ''spirit'' of the game.